My old-but-faithful Treo 300.
Posted on 12/03/2004 10:18:54 AM PST by kerrywearsbotox
By Gene J. Koprowski UPI Technology News
Published 12/3/2004 9:04 AM CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A mobile phone is a disposable product -- consumers buy a new one about every year and a half, and toss the old one in the closet. Then, years later, when they have a major house-cleaning weekend, they find a few old phones collecting dust and toss them out in the trash. Experts told UPI's Wireless World this pattern is starting to become a major environmental issue, as old mobile phones start to fill up garbage dumps across the United States and leach lead, arsenic, gold and other toxins into the groundwater. "There are a lot of heavy metals being released into landfills because of old mobile phones," said Chuck Harrell, an environmental supervisor with the Southeastern Public Service Authority, a government agency in Chesapeake, Va.Now, mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola Corp. are collaborating with environmentalists and the government to solve this emerging problem. --Wireless World is a weekly series examining the social, cultural and economic impact of mobile telephony technology, by Gene Koprowski, who covers technology for UPI Science News. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com. Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
OH, don't claim that heavy metals cause health hazards - some (a small but ignorant minority) will call you a pinko enviro-fag.
This is mind boggling to me. I have owned a total of two cell phones over the past fifteen years. Why do they need new ones so often?
If I need to dispose of one , I'll put it right next to the dead flashlight batteries that I make a point of putting in the trash---
Notice the statement that it is mobile phones that are filling up garbage dumps across the USA. What a crock!
These people that write these articles really have no clue to how brain-dead they appear.
I admit to being guilty on this one (once). I just upgraded from 2 2-year-old Kyoceras to 2 Nokias (one fer me, one fer the Wife).
But that's mostly because the Kyocera's charging ports started not connecting reliably, and the battery contact design is terrible (Wife's was loose, and would often lose contact completely and shut down).
Same here, almost. I'm on my third cell phone, the only reason I had to buy the 2nd one was because the battery crapped out, and it would have cost nearly as much as a new phone to buy a battery, so I bought a phone that was updated. I really haven't worried to much about tossing the old one in the trash.
They're right - old mobile phones ARE a health hazard. You can throw out your back trying to lift them up to your mouth to talk.
Its nice to hear of an environmental group what works with Industrial technology to find more environmentally friendly alternatives.
I smell a setup for a new disposal tax on the cell bill right next to Algore's fee for wiring schools.
My old-but-faithful Treo 300.
Really?
However, It seems unlikely that metals, a natural element, are polluting our natural environment.
As one who owns a few shares of Nokia, I thank you!
~</:o)
Bingo!!
---
OH, don't claim that heavy metals cause health hazards
---
Repeat after me: Dosage, dosage, dosage.
Home Depot, Radio Shack and lot of other places that sell rechargeable batteries have recycling bins, why not put NiCad and NiMH batteries there?
---yeah---the Republidums sure did a great job getting rid of that---
Gold?
--(sarcasm)--I save precious petroleum by putting them in the trash rather than driving to the recycling center--
Cell phone in lined landfill.
Heavy metal in leachate.
Leachate leaks into streat.
Crawdad ingests metals
catfish eats crayfish
bubba eats catfish, actually a whole mess of fried catfish, thereby ingesting significant amounts of heavy metals over the years.
Maybe a little extreme, but the stuff is quite difficult & expensive to remove from waterourses.
All landfills leak. period.
Gold won't hurt, my dad gets injections for his arthritis.
It's the nickel, cadmium, etc.
Because Madison Avenue has convinced people that cell phones are as much a fashion statement as a means to communicate.
"OH, don't claim that heavy metals cause health hazards - some (a small but ignorant minority) will call you a pinko enviro-fag."
You ARE being sarcastic...no?
The colors change.
Sadly, you're both correct.
I'm very happy with my six year old Nokia.
no.
You are right, the volume isn't a problem. The lib/com scum used to say disposable diapers would choke the landfills, until it was proven that typically make up only 0.5% of a typical landfill volume. Newsprint was at approx 35%, but you didn't see print reporters touting that, did you?
You are right, the lead and acid are nasty, especially because the lead is soluble to an extent in the acid. Most auto batteries are recycled nowadays.
The metals are different in the new batteries.
I knew I would get this s4it from someone.
SSSSSHHHHH!! Bob-the-Taxman-Taft might hear about this and levy yet another tax on us Ohioans!! He's taxed just about everything else!! Paging Ken Blackwell -- HELP!!!
Leaching gold? Are they kidding? Pray tell, unless there's a healthy flow of aqua regia in the groundwater, how would that happen? Further, seeing as groundwater pollution from lead hasn't been detected in Gettysburg of Verdun, what do you think the likelihood of that is from cellphones?
This is nothing more than a scam.
Well at least by cutting down the number of recipients it will delay the day that Social Security collapses.
I was just in Dayton over Thanksgiving and everybody was crying the economic blues. I don't get it. The whole town is manufacturing and white collar and nothing is going on they say. Methinks that voting red this time might just help you guys.
BTTT!!!!!!!
Battery life, reception, Bluetooth connectivity to computer, photos of grandkid on display, Alarm functions, size, ...
And this is just the base model now.
Cell phones are a very successful consumer product; electric cars are as yet an unsuccessful product that is favored by government & enviromentalist groups. Both use batteries that, if not disposed of properly, will cause problems at landfills. Guess which product catches all the heat?
One would think with a Republican controlled state, we would be in good shape. Unfortunately, Bob-the-Taxman-Taft is a RINO of the first degree, and both he and the legislature are spending our money like drunken sailors. If we could get some tax relief, it would help. If the governor and legislature would cut back on their spending, it would help even more!
That's not a lot of space. That's one of the many problems w/ envirowackos---the world is large, and all the refuse for the next century in total takes up only a tiny bit of the area of the surface of the earth. Assuming the stuff is bad and will all go directly into the water, how can ten football fields amount to any measurable difference when you consider all the water on earth? What would that be---one part-per-gazillion?
Of course, these are the same people who tell us the end is near due to global warming, and are the same people who told us 30 years ago the end was near due to the coming ice age, that we were going to run out of oil by 1980, out of food by 1990, Supply side economics would wreck the economy, taxcuts would end civilization as we know it, we all descended from apes, homosexuals are born that way, yadayadayada....With the track record of academia, why would anyone believe a word they say?
It's called upgrading.
The really sad thing is how many people will read this and just believe it unquestioningly.
They didn't call them Brick Phones for nuthin'.
Mrs. Wasp still has and uses her old 5 watt analog bag phone! We ain't throwin it away because we live on the edge of a retarded CA mountainous Sierran county suffering from "Arrested Development," that has banned the erection of cell phone towers. The few we have are pathetically disguised as pine trees and look ridiculous to the MAX!!!
Not bad! Hey, how 'bout mititant member of GANG-GREEN?
What is it about the fact that these heavy metals came out of the ground in the first place, that you can't seem to understand???
I so look forward to its demise. 8^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.